Origin of 'pop' (soda)?
On a recently-aired episode of Unwrapped, host Marc Summers (remember him from Double Dare?) claims that Faygo, makers of the apparently famous berry-flavored Redpop, originated the term 'pop' for their soft drink because of the sound made when the bottle opens. This is corroborated by an article from the Soda Museum. An online etymology site, however, claims that the first usage of 'soda pop' is from 1873. The Faygo folks weren't in business until the 1920s. This timeline of soft drink history says 'pop' was first used in 1861 but gives no further comment. Anyone have more concrete information about this? I'm sadly lacking a good print dictionary (well, okay, any print dictionary, of English at least) here.
2 Comments:
The first reference in the OED is from a letter written by Robert Southy in 1812 (published in 1856) that reads, "A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because 'pop goes the cork' when it is drawn."
Thanks! Nectar indeed, haha.
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